Walt Disney World sued by passholders over reservation system

Disney was as stagnant, despite being in a better financial position.

Touchdown:

Disney is not keeping up with the industry

Yeah, they really seem to be dying on the vine.

Disney announces things extremely early, after the Epcot redo and Tron, it only has vague plans for a retheme of Dinoland and a Beyond Thunder Mtn area that are all 5+ years away. Universal will open a new park, a Minions attraction, they are also capable of having a build in less then a year. 3 parks makes Universal a 5-7 day resort for most people. I’m not saying it’s going to close but I expect Disney to lose its view as the runaway #1 Orlando attraction which was unthinkable 10 years ago.

Disney does announce plans well in advance. Tron was announced in 2017. What projects on the books have been announced? The Splash Mountain retheme for 2024? Outside of that I can't think of anything.

We will be making DVC reservations in 2025, but it won't be to visit Disney. We'll be hopping over to Universal.

I still think the key to a better Disney experience than what is currently being offered is a significant price increase.

Orlando tourism is not a zero-sum game. It's great that Universal is moving from a two-to-three-day resort to a three-to-five-day one. It makes sense for Universal to add that third gate to become more of a destination. That doesn't have to cannibalize Disney's attendance; it can be largely additive.

I think there's a good case that the two resorts are positioned differently: WDW targets pre-school through late grade school or maybe middle school, plus the empty nesters. Universal has middle-school up through young(ish) adults that haven't started families yet. There's plenty of addressable market to go around.

People can argue over whether or not Disney is doing "enough". I think they've put in three excellent additions (New Fantasyland, the Pandoraverse, and Galaxy's Edge), one decent one (Toy Story), and a nice little expansion (Rat/France). These have significantly expanded capacities for three of the four parks, and when the Epcot spine is done, that will help as well.

As a theme park fan, this is all great. I don't see the point of "My Resort is better than Your Resort" but if that's what folks want to do, have fun.

I can’t remember if this has been covered here, but it seems Disney has permanently cancelled the Play! Pavilion at EPCOT. It was originally announced back in 2019, that seems like a while ago.

I don’t have a resort (as of yesterday I own an AP at both) and I would be excited if I thought Disney was responding but they’re not. I fear Disney is resting on their laurels much like they did when they stopped building for 10 years out of a mistaken belief that MDE was the solution to not having to build new attractions. Until there is a change in Leadership, I am not impressed with the current CEO, creatively Disney has had more misses then hits as of late in all its endeavors ever since he took over.

I don't mean this as a reflection of your character, only your opinion, but you sound like a blogger, especially with the Chapek hate. Literally everything we know about was in the works under Iger. Covid forced some changes, but among those that were announced (the rumors that festered into fact don't count), little has changed despite a lost year.

When I got here nine years ago, New Fantasyland was incomplete, there were no Star Wars, Toy Story, Avatar lands. Not attractions... entire lands. Plus there's Soarin'-3, Frozen, Remy, Guardians, Railway... I mean, it's so little that... attendance is higher than ever?

And most importantly, Food & Wine is almost half the year. 🍸

I am not a blogger, or a you tuber, just a coaster nerd that lives in WI. I don’t watch any of those things on a regular basis either. Rise, Mickeys and Guardians are really fun additions, and Rise sets a new standard for dark rides. I realize some things were set in motion by Iger, and I love going to Disney, but I am just not excited about what this next few years hold for WDW. If it wasn’t for my sister making her big family trip next fall I would let my pass lapse in March, but I’ll be reaping for another year (if I still can, who knows what the future brings.) Maybe I’m burnt out, I really enjoyed my rotation I used to do where I would buy a pass for DL one year, Universal the next, then WDW and between the promise of a anniversary year and now my families plans I’ve been locked into one place too long.

Universal’s plans simply have me much more excited in the near term. I can’t wait to be in a Mariokart race, have a Universal Monsters Dark Ride, see if the Ministry of Magic can best Rise, and get a couple new coasters to ride in Orlando. Tron looks fun but short; Splash is my favorite ride at MK I’m frankly nervous about it’s retheme given how my two favorite characters (Ray and Dr. Faciller) and their songs (also my favorites) will not be featured at all (Both voices are preformed by very active voice actors who would have returned and Disney would have announced if they were) but hopeful that they can improve it and with Play and MP now canceled, the only thing left for at Epcot is the spine and Moana fountains.

In a few years, if those MK plans actually come to be (Coco as a Flight of Passage ride, Encanto as a trackless ride through the casita and a Villians Land) I will be thrilled, but that seems way too ambitious to actually come to be and I’m sure will be paired back significantly given recent track records. I truely don’t have an axe to grind.

That's fine if it just isn't your thing or they aren't building stuff to your liking, but suggesting that they aren't "keeping up with the industry," I don't even know what that means. If it is a thing, it clearly doesn't matter to the public, which keeps showing up in record numbers no matter how much they hike the prices or charge for add-ons.

I've heard the same argument about cruise line, and yet, with only five ships, they still charge more per passenger than anyone else, without casinos, and they're generally booked pretty solid.

Could Disney do something to improve the guest experience? Absolutely. Should they be sued because they choose not to? No. Doesn't seem any more complex than that, to me.

Oh I think this suit is stupid. You know what was happening.

Jeff, CF is spending on capex at about the same rate before the pandemic, ditto Herschunds, Seas is massively increasing capex as is Universal. Disney is cutting back after this year per the last investor meeting. How is it wrong to say they are falling behind the industry? I guess they are doing the same thing Six is…

The_Orient_of_Express:

how would you suggest Disney expand the park?

build identical park next to it and balance the capacity?

My own mini Gonchback: https://coasterbuzz.com/Forums/PostLink/981685

But cutting back from what? They are building three new (huge) cruise ships which is a big chunk of that capex. They are also gutting and re-building a sizeable chunk of one of their open parks.

I can find a lot to complain about about Disney, but "they aren't building stuff" doesn't seem to be one of them.

How about "they aren't building stuff at a reasonable enough pace"? EPCOT is a mess, and TRON is going to be 5 years in the making. That's definitely enough to cause frustration among guests.

Granted, I've always said I'd pay it is World Showcase was its own gate - but I meant while "Future World" was still intact :-D

I would argue that theme parks need constant capex to maintain and grow revenue. Cutting back on them will lead to poorer financials later on, not to mention those parks are packed right? You know how to make them more packed and grow revenue? Build more.

You can only play the increase per cap spending game (and ignore growth) for so long, it becomes a losing game and breaks very badly eventually and an unpredictable time. Disney still hasn’t returned to 2019 attendance numbers and is actively suppressing attendance. It’s working, for now, but they have never suppressed attendance for this long before. All increases in revenue are coming from per cap spending, you would think a business would want to increase their attendance to increase revenue. To do that you need capex, and again park capex is decreasing next year.

Raven-Phile:

How about "they aren't building stuff at a reasonable enough pace"? EPCOT is a mess, and TRON is going to be 5 years in the making. That's definitely enough to cause frustration among guests.

Granted, I've always said I'd pay it is World Showcase was its own gate - but I meant while "Future World" was still intact :-D

I would guess most of us that post here are extreme hardcore outlier fans.

the parks are busier than ever. The general public doesn’t care much about how fast they are building things.

Yep. My non-Disney-bubble friends who go once every few years have never considered how long Tron has taken. Hell, I go once every few years and I barely even care (because what’s already there s great.)

Touchdown:

How is it wrong to say they are falling behind the industry?

Cap ex spending isn't a contest among companies. You don't "win" if you spend the most money, you just spend the most money. I mean, you even said...

I would argue that theme parks need constant capex to maintain and grow revenue.

But not if they're already where they want to be.

Disney still hasn’t returned to 2019 attendance numbers and is actively suppressing attendance.

Probably false. They don't release specific numbers (and the AECOM numbers are trash), but anecdotally I would suggest they've easily crushed the 2019 attendance. There is no off-season anymore. And it doesn't matter anyway, because that isn't the metric that the company and investors are looking at, it's revenue and profit. For parks/experiences segment:

• 2022 fiscal Q3: $7.4b revenue, $2.2b operating income
• 2019 fiscal Q3: $6.6b revenue, $1.7b operating income

And while we're on the subject of capital expenditures:

• Nine months ending 7/2/22: $2.2b domestic, $584m international
• Nine months ending 6/29/19: $2.5b domestic, $611m international.

So a 12% decrease following a global pandemic with a tight labor market and constant supply chain pressure. That seems pretty bold to me. And for comparison, since you imply that the amount spent is how you win, NBCUniversal (unit of Comcast), which includes not just the parks, but the media and film operations, spent $769m in the first six months of this year. So unless they spend $1.4b on capex in these three months, they're not even remotely close to outspending Disney.

You had to know someone was gonna look it up, right?